Because of teacher the enabler (and because I haven’t heard it in so long) I am now going to play Southern Cross very loud, and have a beer. It’s not even seven o’clock here, so I doubt the neighbors will complain, but if they do, I’m blaming teacher. They will probably be confused.

Sturgeon’s law is bunk. … I think it’s more of a psychological phenomenon rather than any actual facts.

That’s kind of the point. People’s judgements and complaints typically say more about the person than about the thing being judged. And that’s okay, as long as they recognize it, which I think Sturgeon’s Law attempts to do. Most things don’t appeal to most people, because of differences in taste. If anything, I’d estimate that 90% is generously optimistic. The actual ratio of music I don’t like is probably closer to 99%. I don’t even remember the last time I heard anything on the radio which appealed to me. But that doesn’t mean the music is actually crud; it just doesn’t fit my narrow range of tastes.

Okcupid did a similar study at one point, though the article seems to be gone ever since they restructured their site. They found that people who tried to appeal to a general audience got a lot of 3- and 4-star ratings, but very few at 1, 2, or 5 stars. They didn’t receive many messages and weren’t very successful at finding matches. Meanwhile, people who proudly flew their freak flags, openly displaying tattoos or unusual physical features or an entire wall of pokemon or whatever, received mostly 1-star and 5-star ratings. And they usually found matches fairly quickly.

In many endeavors, there is really no point in being mediocre… because being judged at only 3 or 4 stars isn’t good enough to get into Sturgeon’s 10% category of “not crud”. Instead, it works better to identify and amplify uncommon traits. That means getting a whole lot of 1- and 2-star ratings, but for the people who like it, they’ll really really like it and, in their minds, it’s not 5 stars… it’s more like 500.

So, with that in mind… 90% of adages are crud, including Sturgeon’s Law.

Sturgeon’s law is bunk. … I think it’s more of a psychological phenomenon rather than any actual facts.

That’s kind of the point. People’s judgements and complaints typically say more about the person than about the thing being judged. And that’s okay, as long as they recognize it, which I think Sturgeon’s Law attempts to do. Most things don’t appeal to most people, because of differences in taste. If anything, I’d estimate that 90% is generously optimistic. The actual ratio of music I don’t like is probably closer to 99%. I don’t even remember the last time I heard anything on the radio which appealed to me. But that doesn’t mean the music is actually crud; it just doesn’t fit my narrow range of tastes.

Okcupid did a similar study at one point, though the article seems to be gone ever since they restructured their site. They found that people who tried to appeal to a general audience got a lot of 3- and 4-star ratings, but very few at 1, 2, or 5 stars. They didn’t receive many messages and weren’t very successful at finding matches. Meanwhile, people who proudly flew their freak flags, openly displaying tattoos or unusual physical features or an entire wall of pokemon or whatever, received mostly 1-star and 5-star ratings. And they usually found matches fairly quickly.

In many endeavors, there is really no point in being mediocre… because being judged at only 3 or 4 stars isn’t good enough to get into Sturgeon’s 10% category of “not crud”. Instead, it works better to identify and amplify uncommon traits. That means getting a whole lot of 1- and 2-star ratings, but for the people who like it, they’ll really really like it and, in their minds, it’s not 5 stars… it’s more like 500.

So, with that in mind… 90% of adages are crud, including Sturgeon’s Law.

I just hope the FW3A won’t be crud.

This reminds me of a quote I read not very long ago. I dismissed it at first, but quickly realized the root message of the quote was actually true: Normal is just the average of abnormal! And I think people intuitively know this, so we subconsciously steer clear of people who are “too normal” because we’re afraid of the hidden “abnormal” that might show itself later.

—

Reason is not automatic. Those who deny it cannot be conquered by it. Do not count on them. Leave them alone.
-Ayn Rand

I agree with those two, and I ALWAYS like orange.
This is not meant to be negative, it is just a thought. I wonder if it would make such a small light look cheap or toylike.
I would be a buyer regardless of color though, so I guess it would come back to earlier thoughts in this thread about letting Fritz make aesthetic decisions on his design.

The prototype gray was fine to me except for the “seams” in the finish. I never noticed them on the earlier pics.

Same here. The “seams” would have been dismissed even if noticed though because one is used to seeing reflections and lighting artefacts in photographs that look like that, and ignoring them as not likely part of the object.

At the moment, Anduril uses a thermal regulation method which knows nothing about the actual host characteristics or driver. It simply senses “overheating” or “underheating” like a user-adjustable thermostat, with some information about magnitude, like the degrees of excess multiplied by how long it has been in that condition. From this, it attempts to find a happy medium, with the adjustment speed determined by the magnitude. It’s fairly universal and typically works well with no need to hardcode anything about the host itself. Also, the adjustments are so smooth they’re basically invisible without a lux meter.

But.

On such a small and overpowered light, like the FW3A, overheating can happen so fast that it barely even has time to react. By the time it senses that things are trending too high, the light could already by too hot to touch. It works fine on a larger host like a Q8, or at a more reasonable power level like 3 Amps, because sensor lag is much less of a factor there.

So I’m wondering if I should change it. It currently regulates fine from the default ceiling level of ~1100 lm, but it doesn’t drop fast enough from full turbo.

Instead, I could make it drop immediately (or at least very very quickly) to the highest regulated level of ~1100 lm whenever it senses any overheating condition while the FET is active. Even if it’s over by just 1 degree for just a few seconds, it’d trigger a full turbo step-down and shut off the direct drive circuit. Maybe it’d still do the smooth ramp-down, but it would no longer be invisible — it’d be fast enough to see, like 4 seconds. And since there’s thermal lag, it might continue to regulate downward for bit afterward, overshooting its ideal target level, but at least the host wouldn’t get anywhere near as hot as a slower method.

Although dropping from 100% power to ~25% power is a huge change in the amount of heat generated, to the eye it looks more like it’s going from 100% to 80%. Effectively, it looks like dropping only one level.

So.

What do people prefer?

Smooth but slow universal method which allows full turbo to run longer but may require the user to exercise common sense and turn the brightness down manually sometimes.

Fast drop to a hardcoded level which is safer but may potentially be a little oversensitive and uses code instead of common sense to enforce “turbo is for brief use only”.

There is also still a muggle mode, which probably couldn’t start a fire even if someone wrapped it in dark-colored insulation with a low ignition temperature. So, use that for the kids. The question is how it should behave in non-muggle mode.

- as flashaholic and as a person that knows that these are not toys, I would prefer option A, meaning that I would be responsible to take care of the light and turn it OFF or cool it down if needed (except, maybe, in unattended conditions).

- as a person that knows that [besides the thousands of enthusiast members that are in the GB lists to get 1 or more of these lights] there will be a sale of the FW3A beyond our lists, for “muggles” or not so “aware” people, I would carefully ponder option B.

I can see points for both options, but I do know that I use my D4 less often than I intended to when I bought it because of the potential for burned fingers and lighting pants on fire (even if I’m not lying!). I carry a variety of flashlights, use them most days, know how to be safe and understand the dangers and I still can see the value in the second option.

Turbo in a light this size is not a feature that I’d use often. I’d show off to friends and family with it or use it if I need a lot of light quickly. Neither of those situations require minutes (or even a single minute) of turbo so I’m not so worried about a stepdown at the first sign of overheating.

I can guess that there are a bunch of folks who hate the thought of throttling down a light with this much potential, but I think that the second option is wisest.